The English writer of one of the many war-books now before the public—­“The German Army From Within,” by one who has served in it as an officer, tells us that he calculates one of our “Tommies” to be at least equal to three “Hans Wursts”; and when the personal equation is taken into account—­the value of individual character and initiative—­the estimate will not seem to be exaggerated.  In fact, it has been proved to be correct by the opinion of all our best judges in the field itself, as well as by the results of the fighting when the odds against us have been invariably three to one, in spite of which we have always managed, not only to maintain our ground, but also to encroach on that of our antagonists.

Hence it follows that a so-called “Kitchener” army of a million men ought to have for us a military value of at least three millions as against the Germans—­the more so since their best first-line troops have already been used up, and replaced with beardless boys and most corpulent greybeards.  This is not a fanciful description; it corresponds with the reports sent home by “Eye-Witness” at Headquarters and other reliable observers; while there is an absolute consensus of statement that our soldiers enjoy a commissariat system which is at once the admiration of their French friends and the sheer envy and despair of their German foes.  The fact alone that our men are better found and better fed than the enemy gives them an advantage over and above their three-to-one equivalent of the individual kind.

[Continued overleaf.

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The illustrated war news, Nov. 18, 1914—­7

[Illustration:  A waist-Deep shell-Hole in A Belgian street:  In A war-wrecked west Flanders township.]

The devastating effect of shell-fire on human habitations is brought out with appealing effect by the photograph which we give above of the scene in one of the ill-fated Belgian townships on the frontier of West Flanders.  Wrecked and ruined houses with their walls leaning over and tottering, about to fall in ruin, and the heaps of littered debris in the street tell a fearful tale of what the havoc from a bombardment by heavy projectiles means for the hapless inhabitants of the place.  The tremendous force of the impact with which the shells crash down is shown at the same time by the man seen in the foreground of the photograph standing up to the waist in one of the gaping cavities in the ground that the shells make where they strike.  In some of the houses they smash through from roof to cellar.—­[Photo. by Illus.  Bureau.]

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8—­The illustrated war news, Nov. 18, 1914.

[Illustration:  Touring in Germany with the Prince of Wales:  The late Major Cadogan, the PRINCE’S equerry, who has been killed in action.]